Times Change For Anti-castro Exiles

The Cuban American National Foundation Has Tried To Moderate Its Tone.

July 30, 2001|By Rafael Lorente, Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON -- A more moderate tone, a sharper focus on a future Cuba without Fidel Castro and a softening on rigid embargo politics are causing fissures within the Cuban American National Foundation, the once near-monolithic voice of the exile community.

The emerging strategy reflects the powerful lobbying organization at a crossroads, taking a more pragmatic approach in the face of stiffer opposition on the issue of U.S.-Cuba relations and a change in public opinion in the post-Cold War era.

Besides dealing with its own internal troubles, the foundation also faces a withering assault by U.S. farm groups and others against the four-decade embargo of Cuba, a tense relationship with Cuban-American lawmakers on Capitol Hill and a wary White House that does not fully trust the group.

But hard-liners inside and outside the organization don't like the changes and say they are contrary to the legacy of CANF's founder, the late Jorge Mas Canosa. Ninoska Perez-Castellon, a longtime friend of Mas Canosa, and her husband, Roberto Martin Perez, resigned recently because of the changes. Others remain unhappy.

Many hard-liners have been upset at the foundation's support for the Latin Grammys broadcast from Miami this year. Foundation leaders see support for the Grammys as a symbolic way of moderating the group's image around the country. The Grammys and other issues are secondary, the foundation's leaders counter. The most important goal is helping Cuba move toward a democratic, free-market form of government after Castro is gone. Like their opponents, they also claim the mantle of Mas Canosa, whom they remember as a pragmatic leader willing to adjust to the realities around him in order to bring freedom to Cuba.

"The role of the foundation is to ensure that the intent and the rights of all Cuban people on the island and off the island are not forgotten" when Castro dies, said Dennis Hays, who heads the Washington office of the foundation.

ELIAN UNDERSCORED TROUBLE

The foundation's troubles became obvious as the Elian Gonzalez saga unfolded last year. The same organization that had brokered deals in Congress to significantly strengthen the embargo against Cuba in the early and mid-1990s was unable to muster support for keeping the boy in the United States. Public opinion polls showed most Americans wanted the boy returned to Cuba.

At the same time, farm groups pushed legislation through Congress that allowed the sale of food to Cuba's government. Only last-minute maneuvering by Republican leaders in the House and the three Cuban-American members of Congress weakened the law.

And just last week, the Republican-controlled House of Representatives voted 240-186 to discontinue enforcement of travel restrictions that make it illegal for most Americans to go to Cuba. Sponsored by a conservative Arizona Republican, the amendment drew 67 votes from Republicans, once the foundation's surest allies.

"As you can see with that vote . . . the embargo is not a winning issue for us," Hays said.

That is not to say the foundation has given up on the embargo. "We need to talk about different things," said Jorge Mas Santos, Mas Canosa's son and the foundation's chairman. "Now if someone wants to say the embargo is in danger and should we debate over that, then my answer would be yes, but President Bush has been extremely clear there will be no changes to sanctions unless there are changes in Cuba."

But even having a Republican president who promised during the campaign that he would enforce the embargo against Cuba has not been as beneficial as many Cuban-Americans had hoped. This month Bush waived a controversial provision of the Helms-Burton embargo law, continuing a policy that many Cuban-American leaders used to excoriate former President Clinton.

CANF also doesn't have the kind of clout with Bush that it enjoyed during Ronald Reagan's tenure in the White House because of long-running distrust between the Bush family and the organization. In 1992, while President George Bush was running for re-election, Mas Canosa introduced Clinton to Cuban-American movers and shakers in Miami. Clinton collected $125,000 in campaign contributions and later got a significant proportion of the Cuban-American vote.

Weeks before last year's presidential election, Mas Santos and other CANF leaders met with Democratic vice-presidential nominee Joe Lieberman, once again angering the Bush camp. Lieberman also was joined by foundation leaders in a visit to the gravesite of his old friend Mas Canosa.

Some of the foundation's members don't trust the Bush administration, either. They worry that several members of Bush's inner circle have historically opposed the kinds of sanctions currently imposed on Cuba.